General Notes

[inglis family.and Keith .4FBK.ged.FBK.FBK.FBK.FTW]
A similarity of reasoningapplies to Gundreda. We are told that in 1070
she and her husband went on a pilgrimage to Rome, as detailed by W. de
Warenne himself in his second charterof foundation of Lewes Priory [MS
Cott. Vesp. F. xv.; Mon. v., I sq], and that their progress was arrested
on reaching Burgundy by the contest then goingon between Henry IV of
Germany and Pope Gregory VII (Hildebrand). The year 1070, however, has
manifestly been wrongly fixed as the date of this occurrence. The period
at which the war ensued between the Emperor and the Pope, was between the
years 1073 and 1077, so that it must necessarily be referred to some year
between those dates, for Pope Gregory did not succeed to St Peter's chair
until the death of Pope Alexander in 1073.
16 "Corpus Chronicorum Flanderiae," i., 552.
Lewes:
Geo P Bacon, Sussex Advertizer Office, 64 High Street,
King, Brighton. Cleaver; Baker Street, London.
MDCCCXLV
[1845]
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Brief Outline
of
The Life of Gundrad,
&c, &c.
Gundrad wasthe fourth Daughter of William the Conqueror. Her mother,
Queen Maud, was daughter of the fifth Earl of Flanders, and
grand-daughter of Robert, King of France, son of Hugh Capet. She was born
in the Dutchey of Normandy, and afterher Father had attained the Crown,
came, it is probable, first into England with her Mother in 1067,
previous to the Queen's Coronation, being then about16 or 17 years old.
Not long after she married William de Warenne, a Noblemanof Normandy,
who was also the first Earl of Surrey in England, and who, related to the
Duke of Normandy by descent, had held a distinguished command in the
memorable and eventful battle of Hastings. No nobleman received greater
marks of favour from the Conqueror than his son-in-law, William de
Warenne. Lands and Lordships in almost every part of England were
conferred upon him. InSussex, he held the whole Rape of Lewes. He
rebuilt and enlarged the Saxon Castle of Lewes, and after his marriage
with the Daughter of the Conqueror, made it their chief residence.
About the year 1070, Earl William de Warenne andhis wife Gundrad left
England, intending to proceed to Rome. Finding, however, the country in a
state of war, and it was unsafe to
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prosecute their journey, they turned aside, and took up their abode for
some time at a Monastery at Cluny, in Burgundy, on the banks of the
Garonne, in which the discipline and black habit of St Benedict were
adopted. The monks of Cluny were hospitable and charitable. The most
regular devotions, bodily labour, and strict self-denial were enjoined by
the rules of their Order. A favourable impression was produced upon the
minds of Gundrad and the Earl; and having previously intended to form a
religious House near to their Castle of Lewes, they nowdetermined that
the Monks to be there established, should be of this Order,and in
connexion with this Cluniac Monastery.
They, in consequence, requested of the Abbot of Cluny, that he would send
three or four Monks for the forming of the intended Monastery; promising
to endow it, and to found it at the site of the Church of St Pancras,
Southover, under the Castle of Lewes, which,originally a Saxon Church
and constructed of wood, the Earl had already rebuilt with stone. The
Abbot of Cluny, although at first averse to the petition,objecting to
the distance and danger, eventually yielded to their request, and sent
over Lanzo, the first Prior, and three other ecclesiastics with him.The
deeds for all those grants and charters, those lands and privileges,
which Gundrad and Earl Warenne had promised, received soon after the
royal confirmation. Thus they became the Founders of the Priory of Lewes,
commencing inthe sixth, and completing it in the twelfth year after the
conquest. Its walls embraced an area of 32 acres. This great Cluni